“No Japan” for Men’s Basketball, Hockey and Rugby Teams

South Korea is getting off to a good start in games performed with balls.

South Korea has shown good performances in men’s basketball game, men’s hockey and rugby (7-men type), all of which were held on Sep. 30th, the first official day of the 14th Busan Asian Games. In all these, Korea beat its opponents, making it look more realistic to win the second place in this Game.

In the men’s basketball preliminaries for Group B, which was held in Kumjung Stadium, Korea beat Japan 79-62, and advanced to the second round of the preliminaries, ranked 1st in that group.

“Rambo Shooter” Moom Kyung-eun (SK Bigs) made the most points among players of both, recording 26 points with 6 successful shoots of 3 points. In addition, Suh Chang-hoon (Samsung), Bang Sung-yoon (Yensei Univ.) and Chon Hee-chul (KCC) also recorded the two-digit points.

Korea showed a little unstableness up to the second quarter. The instability was at its highest when the Twin Towers of Korea, Suh Chan-hoon and Kim Joo-sung (Sambo), got into the foul trouble. It ended the two quarters, being led by Japan 35-38. But from the third quarter, Moon Kyung-eun scored 13 points, and based on his performance, Korea turned around and widened the gap with Japan 71-55 by 4 minutes 36 seconds prior to the end.

Also in the hockey preliminaries for Group A, held at Kangsuh Hockey Stadium, Korea shut out its first opponent Japan 4-0, getting off to a smooth start for the championship, which would come true in 8 years, if made possible. In terms of the number of games won, Korea tied with India. Since, however, India has made more goals, Korea settled for the second place.

In this game, most of the players, who brought the silver medal to Korea in the Sidney Olympics, were put in the starting line-up. Korea throughout the game showed its superiority to Japan with its excellent stick-skills and teamwork. At 11 minute, Shin Suk-gyo turned the penalty corner into a shooting, which missed the goal post by a hair’s margin. But the first goal came at an unexpected time in an unexpectedly easy manner.

At 20’, Cap. Kang Kun-wool intercepted Japanese goalkeeper Nobui Yashiro’s passing to a Japanese defense near the shooting circle, and punched the ball into net, which rattled the net.

In the latter half, Korea accelerated the attacking speed, and at 4’ of the second half, Kim Kyung-suk sent a pass from the right corner of the shooting circle to Hwang, Chong-hyun (Sungnam City Hall), who made a touch-shoot out of it and recorded another goal.

In another game belonging to the group, India, who won the championship last year, maintained its lead throughout the game and beat its weak opponent 5-1.

In the preliminaries for the 7-men type, Group A, held at Woolsan Public Stadium, Korea recorded an overwhelming victory over Malaysia 31-5. In the following games, it also beat Sri Lanca and Taiwan 49-7 and 35-12, respectively. Thus, with three victories and no loss, Korea secured the first place of the group, and will take on the second place holder of Group B on Oct. 1, 2002.

In the meanwhile, in the first softball game held at Sajik Stadium, Korea recorded a shutout victory over Philippine 5-0 due to the excellent performance of its pitcher Park Young-soon (24), who is the third-generation of Korean-Japanese.

But North Korea, in the following game, was beaten by Japan 0-1.